The present invention relates to a connector for flat flexible cable, which is typically referred to as FPC (flat printed circuit or cable), FFC (flat flexible cable) and so forth. All of these cables and circuits will be generally referred to as xe2x80x9cFPCxe2x80x9d.
A conventional FPC connector generally includes an insulative housing formed with an FPC inserting portion, a plurality of terminals loaded in parallel relationship with a predetermined pitch in the insulative housing, and a pivoting actuator for establishing electrical contact between the conductors of the FPC and terminals of the connector.
There has been proposed in the prior art a structure for pivotably supporting the actuator, in which a pivot beam 101 is provided in a terminal, a pivot portion 102 is formed at a tip end portion of the pivot beam 101 to engage with a cam portion 104 of an actuator 103 as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 2000-106238 and 2001-76794, for example). Namely, on a side edge portion of the actuator 103, a through opening 105 is formed corresponding to the pivot portion 101 of the terminal 100. A peripheral edge portion of the through opening 105 is formed as a cam portion 104 of sectional shape as shown. The cam portion 104 is engaged with the pivot portion 102 of the terminal. Accordingly, the cam portion 104 engages with the pivot portion 101 above a contact beam 106 of the terminal 100.
Upon assembling such actuator 103 to an insulative housing 107 loaded terminals 100, the actuator 103 is situated at substantially perpendicular position relative to the insulator housing 107. Then, the actuator 103 is moved from front side (left side in the drawings) to rear side with maintaining attitude relative to the insulative housing 107 with accommodating the pivot portions 101 of the terminals 100 through the through openings 105. Therefore, dimension of the through opening (A in FIG. 13) becomes greater relative to a dimension in height direction (B in FIG. 13) of the pivot portion 101 of the terminal 100 to facilitate accommodating of the pivot portion 101 into the through opening 105.
In the foregoing prior art shown in FIG. 13, the cam portion 104 provided on the side of the actuator 103 is located close to the position of contact beams 106 of the terminals 100. During assembly of the actuator 103, care must be taken to prevent the cam portion 104 from contacting and damaging contact beam 106. Lowering the profile of the connector reduces the distance between the contact beams of the terminals and the pivot beam to make the foregoing problem significant. Therefore, solving of the problem set forth above becomes a requirement for achieving lower profile connectors.
The opening dimension (A) of the through hole 105 of the actuator 103 is greater in comparison with the dimension in the height direction of the pivot portion 101 of the terminal 100. The actuator 103 which is in an open condition as shown in the drawings, is pivoted in the direction of arrow R to its closed condition to establish connection with the FPC. During this pivoting movement, the pivot portion 102 and the cam portion 104 can be disengaged allowing the actuator 103 to slide out of the connector without pivoting. Frontward sliding of the actuator 103 is prevented only by the engaging portion between the cam portion 104 and the pivot portion 102.
Furthermore, in the prior art shown in FIG. 13, all of the cam portions 104 are received within a cut-out portion of the pivot portion 102. On the other hand, the cam portion 104 urges the inserted FPC toward the contact beam 106 to contact under pressure to contact the contact of the contact beam 106 and the contact of the FPC (contacts on the lower surface in the shown case) to establish electrical connection. For this reason, in order to obtain sufficient strength in the pivot portion 102, a width in the height direction of the pivot beam 101 has to be sufficiently large. On the contrary to this, the width in the height direction of the pivot beam 101 has to be reduced for forming low profile connector. Therefore, in the support structure of the conventional actuator, freedom in designing of the connector is restricted.
The present invention has been worked out in view of the problem set forth above. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an FPC connector which has a structure not damaging contacts of terminals upon assembly.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an FPC connector which can prevent an actuator from sliding out of engagement during pivoting.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an FPC connector having a support structure for an actuator which can provide large freedom in designing a connector.
To achieve these and other objects, the present invention is a new FPC connector. This connector includes an insulative housing formed with an FPC insertion slot, a plurality of terminals loaded within the insulative housing in parallel relationship with a predetermined pitch, and a pivoting actuator for establishing contact between conductors of the FPC and of the terminals. Each of the terminals have a contact beam extending into the FPC insertion slot and a pivot beam extending substantially parallel in the upper side of the contact beam. A cut-out portion is formed on a lower edge at a tip end portion of the pivot beam for forming a pivot portion of the actuator. The actuator is formed with through openings corresponding to pivot portions of respective terminals. A peripheral edge portion of each of the through hole is formed into a cross-sectionally substantially circular shape shaft portion to engage with the pivot portion. Pushing projecting portions are provided between adjacent shaft portions and between the contact beams of the terminals which allow the actuator to pivot urging the FPC toward the contact beam of the terminals.
An opening dimension of each through hole formed in the actuator may be smaller than a dimension of the pivot portion of the terminal in height direction. The actuator may be pivotable between a first position where the actuator is oriented substantially parallel with the insulative housing and a second position where the actuator is oriented in a raised position, the actuator is engageable of the shaft portion with the pivot portion of the terminal only from lower side in the orientation of the actuator in the first position. The actuator may be supported by support members at both end portions of the insulative housing, and the shaft portion may be prevented from downward movement from the position engaging with the pivot portion.